Gov’t Disagrees With ISSER Report On Axing Some Ministries, Free SHS

Government has disagreed with a report by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) which recommended that government needed to cut down its expenditure by reviewing some of its flagship programs.

The Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah at a press briefing on Wednesday disagreed with the report’s recommendations stressing “government’s view is that the Free SHS is a heritage of the Ghanaian child.”

He added, “It is not necessarily based on whether your parents are rich or poor. It is to ensure that every Ghanaian child benefits from quality education up to the secondary school level.”

The ISSER report suggested that government’s flagship Free SHS should be targeted at households with a proven record of low income so that the families that need the free secondary education get it while money is saved in the national purse.

Dr Charles Ackah, a Research Fellow at the Institute, at a launch program for the report, also called on government to scrap some ministries arguing that they had outlived their purposes.

Their continuous existence he said has become a burden on the public purse, which needs to be freed to undertake other important developmental projects.

He said Ministries like the Inner City and Zongo Development, Business Development, Special Development Initiatives and Monitoring and Evaluation are only a duplication of functions which does not need a Ministry.

In response, the Minister who doubles as the Ofoase Ayeribi MP said “we very much respect the view of academia and we encourage such reports that come up because it gives us an opportunity to interrogate these issues.”

“Regional reorganisation, of course, the first part of regional reorganisation has taken place and now we have 16 regions but it is regional reorganisation and development.”

He argued that “You go across the new regions, they now have to develop infrastructure and operations that they require to bring those regions to a fast track approach up to the level of the other regions.”

“We are of the view that regional reorganisation and development is done with its reorganisation agenda but has a development task ahead of it, which it is currently embarking on,” he continued.

Kojo Oppon Nrumah added, “We very much respect these views but we disagree with them. If government has the view to review that position it will do it as time goes along.”